2016 Gibson Trophy - Managers Report

2016 GIBSON TROPHY - MANAGERS REPORT

The journey of the 2016 Georges River Gibson Trophy team was a real roller-coaster ride which culminated with the team making the final, only to be defeated by a strong Cammeray Golf Club side in the Trophy decider. Our team played with the commitment, passion and sportsmanship associated with all Georges River representative teams.

Pre-Tournament and Trials

For the first time in many years, we had more than enough players register interest in playing for the Gibson team, with ten players seeking selection for the six-man team. We were drawn in a three-team zone, along with Richmond and Botany Golf Clubs. Trial games for selections were organized at both away clubs and encouragingly, we had the entire ten players turn up at the first trial at Richmond and eight players trial at Botany.

Craig Blair was elected team captain, and at the completion of the trials we selected our six player team and two reserves. John Watson and Brian Smith were overlooked for selection and it was a great credit to both members in how they accepted the manager’s decision.

The Friday before our first Sunday game I went through our teams playing records and found that three of our selected players were ineligible for differing reasons (note to manager – check eligibility before trials not after), scurrying back to Mr. Watson and Smith to seek their availability.

Zone Games

We settled on early combinations of Craig Blair and Jim Mason at 1’s, Richard Holland and John Watson at 2’s and Tim Elley and Nathan Hart at 3’s, which worked well and continued throughout our run.

We started with a 3-0 home win against Richmond, followed by a more impressive and decisive win 3-0 away against the same side. So, 6-0 after our first two games and everyone was excited about a zone win.

We were brought back down to earth with a 2-1 home loss against Botany, with Craig Blair and Jim Mason at 1’s being our only winners.

A win away against Botany was a must or our quest was over, and the game was in the balance after the 3’s Tim and Nathan’s easy win was cancelled out by the 2’s loss. But Craig and Jim kept their unbeaten record intact, and our campaign alive, with a tough 2& 1 win.

We’d finished our zone commitments with 3 wins and 1 loss, with the only way of not going thru to the finals being Botany winning 3-0 home and away against Richmond.

Richmond didn’t do us any favors by being beaten 3-0 at home, but they got a crucial (for us) game win to lose the match 2-1, meaning Georges River won the zone and we were into the playoffs.

Quarter Final

There were ten zones in this year’s event, Georges River finishing fifth, meaning we avoided the playoffs for the last two remaining quarter-final spots and played the fourth ranked team Muirfield. The game was played at Moore Park and our team was up for the challenge. The lead in all games swung throughout the day, Jim and Craig keeping their unbeaten record going with a solid 2 & 1 win, and Tim and Nathan holding on 1 up.

Semi-Final

Kareela Golf Course was the venue against Hurstville. This was a similar story to the quarter final, with close contests. Craig and Jim eventually running away with their game 4 & 3 and Tim and Nathan at 3’s again holding on for a 1 up victory. Richard and John started slowly, but came back from 4 down to be two down with two to play when the event was called off as the match had already been decided.

Final

Cammeray had an impressive record throughout the Gibson season, winning their zone with a 5-1 match record winning 15 of their 18 games and being ranked second coming into the play-offs. We knew we were up against a strong squad, but with the final being played at Richmond, and with all of our players already playing a trial and competition game at the course, we felt confident.

Both the 2’s and 3’s found it difficult to match the consistency of the Cammeray teams and soon found themselves behind and struggled to stay in their matches. Craig and Jim at 1’s were always in the mix and their match was always in the balance.

The Cammeray teams eventually proved too strong winning both the 2’s and 3’s 5&4. Disappointingly, this meant the 1’s was declared halved, with Craig and Jim square at the time. It would have been great to have given them the opportunity to complete their round and kept their 100% winning record intact.

After the match the entire team was devastated that they hadn’t gone the whole way and finally won our first pennant for the club. But I’m sure that all of the team members will look back fondly at their efforts in reaching the final and proudly representing their club.

The team was thrilled with the support received throughout the tournament, particularly in the final with both Club President Allan Wight and Club Captain Ryan Hochkins following the team at the Richmond final.

2016 GIBSON TROPHY FINAL TEAM

Left to Right – Jim Mason, Richard Holland, John Watson, Craig Blair (Captain), Tim Elley (Manager), Nathan Hart.

Home Games

1. Officiating – We received great support from members of our Golf Club, particularly our A-Grade players Marcelo Castillon, Kieran Mannix, Ryan Hochkins and Stuart Pearson, who worked as our home game starters and rules officials. These members highlighted the growing comradery within our golf club.

1. Conduct of Games – Course Management and the Pro-Shop are to be congratulated on how the Warren and Gibson games were run this year. Traditionally we have had the Warren Trophy hit-off first, with the Gibson following, meaning sometimes more than an hour between the Warren first team and last Gibson team finishing. Course management decided to hit both competitions off at the same time, the Warren off the 1stand Gibson off the 10th, meaning all groups finished within a close timeframe. I encourage the course to continue with this tee-time procedure.

1. Refreshments – With new Restaurant ownership, it was decided to forgo the usual after round BBQ meals we have normally provided, to support the venue. We had set a high standard of quality with these BBQ and I found the food delivered by the restaurant to be a little below our previous standard. It did relieve some of the pressure in managing the representative team and finding cooks and procuring the food, so we need to weigh up the positives and negatives on how we provide refreshments for future representative teams.

Summary

We came close to securing that elusive pennant, our club provided members with an opportunity to play representative golf, and our team’s conduct can only enhance the reputation of Georges River Golf Club.

Our thanks go out to the committee for your continued support of representative golf, and also to the members who supported the team during our tournament.

Tim Elley

Manager

2016 Gibson Trophy Team